Stolen Cat

Back in June my wife got me a Bengal cat for my birthday. We have two dogs and another cat already so, we put her in a spare bedroom in our apartment while she adapted to her new home. A week later my wife let one of her friends take that same spare bedroom because she had just moved in to the area and needed a place to land and adjust. We let her know she’d be sharing that same bedroom with a new cat while the cat slowly made her way out to a more common area of the apartment. She was fine with it.

My wife’s friend grew fond of my cat and refused to let her out of the bedroom after I kindly asked her a couple times to just let her out since it had been a couple weeks and she seemed to be getting along to the rest of our pets. I thought she was being a little overprotective of my cat, but didn’t pay much mind to it. I thought I’d just let it be and enjoy my cat once this person moves out.

Fast forward to September I find out that this person is moving out soon and that the last week of her staying she’d be mostly out of the house sorting out some family matters. That same week my cat goes missing.

My cat is declawed from the front paws so I know she didn’t climb the tall patio wall. And in three months she never came near the front door so I am also certain that she didn’t sneak out. That cat had to be carried out through the front door. My eyes are on my wife’s “friend.”

My wife tells her that the cat went missing. Suddenly this person is so proactive trying to find her. She makes flyers. She makes a couple of Facebook posts. She tells the grounds people at the apartment complex to keep an eye out. She makes me bring her blanket out and some food so she could find her way back home. I’m not buying it. I know she has my cat.

I call her out and I tell her to please bring my cat back. She says she doesn’t have it and instead start criticizing my wife and I for having too many animals. She even told me that we didn’t give the cat the attention it needs, that it is under-stimulated, and that the cat hated living there. I give her the benefit of the doubt and kindly ask her to admit to it and maybe we can get to an understanding. I couldn’t get her to admit to it. I know she has it.

I talked to the person that gave this cat to my wife and that was originally the owner to see if I could get the microchip info and update it, maybe even flag it as a stolen pet, or something, but turns out she’s not microchipped.

At this point I thought about just taking the L and move on. But I can’t. Can’t stop thinking about being robbed of my pet and being mocked by this entitled individual. To the point that I am doing all this mental acrobatics about how can I turn this into a legal matter.

I apologize if this is hard to read. Any advice is appreciated.

Location: Salt Lake City, UT